this post was submitted on 11 Aug 2025
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Every 60 seconds in Africa, a minute passes
While this may sound reasonable at first glance, it is only true most of the time. Sometimes a minute contains 59 or 61 seconds, even in Africa.
This is known as a leap second, named after Usain Bolt leaping over the finish line a second faster than everybody else
Einstein turbo-rolling in his grave, about to bore a hole through the earth to come and spank you
The rotational inertia of Einstein boring through the planet is responsible for leap seconds.
Never in the history of time has a minute contained only 59 seconds. Even in Africa. And it has been decided that from 2035 onwards, we need to alter time itself in order to eradicate this irregular minute.
We can only hope that before that time, we get to experience one of these magical short minutes. It may happen yet.
In Africa, height depends on how tall you are
Savages
Together, we can stop this
Elevation (really the force of gravity) has an effect on time, so that's technically only true at sea level.
If we're including time dilation in this, so does velocity. This means that the velocity from earth's rotation that you gain with elevation counteracts the loss in gravity to some extent (I don't know what the total is, I can't be fucked doing the maths). It also means that latitude effects time dilation because the equator is moving faster. This means that 60 seconds in south Africa is not exactly the same as a minute at the equator.